Tried to buy my regular VDH at Wal Mart. They no longer carry the pink puck I have come to rely on but now carry the VDH scented luxury (white puck) and the VDH Apathecary mug set with the mug, soap,brush and stand for $24.00
Rite aid still has it. Vdh personally has never worked for me. I threw my last puck away out of sheer frustration haha
Realy? That shocks me, its about the only puck I know of that lathers with little water, lots of water, bowl or face. Some of the EJ soaps I have to work on a bit, they all lather for me but the el cheap o VDH is by far the easiest for me. I have bought that kit twice just for the apath mug and stand. The boar brushes are descent too but the mug & stand are worth the $24.00 by themselves. Sorry you didnt have any luck with it. Have you tried Williams?
Good to know Rite Aid still has it. IMHO, it is one of the very best shave soaps available. The Longs Drugs four blocks from me used to have it, but then they got bought by CVS. CVS carried it for awhile and then switched to Willians. The Walgreen's also used to have Van der Hagen Deluxe, and some excellent ASR-manufactured store brand blades (like Personna 74-0002 /Double Edge Prep). Both were discontinued.
I agree on VDH. Once I figured out how to lather it (I had difficulties getting the soap onto my brush) it turned out to be amazing. It's an exotic soap to me because of sparse availability, but could I get it on every corner it would be a go-to soap for me.
Bought another VDH deluxe kit from Wally world. I bought it for a number of reasons: 1- to make adifference, allow me to explain, if we as a community send a message to the big boys that we are here and we buy thease things, they will take notice and stock a wider variety of wet shaving supplies. 2- I love the apath. mug (I now have 5) 3- I love the brush/razor stand (have 5 of thosr too) 4- Nice boar brush I can PIF to a newbie. (gave all those away, now have 1) 5-I love VDH Soap. When the local supplies stop selling, stores stop stocking. Then the only choice we will have is the net. and the prices that go with. Besides, wouldn't it be cool to go to a local store and pick out a new razor without having to wait to see it live until you have paid for it? One reason I buy blades and Williams from anywhere I can is to do my part in making sure our local suppliers dont dry up. I use Williams, not because I love it, it lathers fine but stinks, is because I paid for it. Just somthing to think about.
For the most part, I find internet prices better than local prices. Look at prices for any kind of cables for computers and tvs, etc. Online you can find them for cheap. Same exact cable at Best Buy carries a huge mark-up. I've seen $2 cables online that sell for $30 at Best Buy. Competition is heavy online. That equals better prices for consumers.
Notice Walgreen still has the vdh deluxe soap. I bought several when Wal-Mart decided to clearance them. I think I have 10 pucks squirreled away. I give them to friends that want to try wet shaving since the soap seems to lather no matter what you do, great for a learning newbie.
I believe (in my area anyway) Wally World just changed over. They carried the pink VDH for ever then nothing for a week. All of a sudden they have the VDH deluxe kit and the scented luxury soap.
Found several pucks at a Krogers store Monday, they are being discontinued, they were < $1 a puck, bought several.
I dont know, the vdh pucks are cheaper than online as are the vdh apath. sets and Williams. Besides, As much as I hate Wally World, you can get Everything cheaper there, their "buying power " is probdbly the strongest in the world. You can also order literally ANYTHING from walmart and have it delivered to your store or home. I bought a solid oak bedroom set for my daughter (same exact set found at local furn store) for $260.00 less than found at store, and she picked it up in her home state Wally World. Naturally you wont ever get custom top shelf soaps, etc. like the stuff you make (Anything made by hand in small batches is ALLWAYS better) but all the basic stuff on hand, for Low prices? We gotta get our obsession mainstream. The fact that Wally is now carrying 2 vdh products, is to me, a good sigh. If new folks can get a basic starting kit, for cheap, localy, they will of course move up to the better stuff, craftsman like yourself will benefit immensly (IMHO)
As I said, for the most part. I was not addressing VDH. I was addressing only the part of your post I quoted. I hear people say that all the time. It was true at one point, it's not now. Little fun fact Target used to carry Proraso products, sometime around 2006 or so. The wetshaving community loved it, and bought it up like crazy. Didn't stop Target from dropping Proraso.
I love that mug, and the stand is a quality stand. The soap works great for me, but the badger brush I got I had to pif. It is a great deal. I don't know about the boar brush though. I loved the Wilkinson Sword DEs that Wally World carried. I wish I had bought more before they quit carrying them. Now they don't have any DEs.
